Himylan Oregano effective against MRSA, et al

[Guest guest]

" A team comprising researchers from a UK university and members of local

businesses and an NGO in India has discovered that the essential oil of

Himalayan oregano has strong antibacterial properties and even kills the

hospital superbug MRSA. They hope these findings will lead to the development of

handsoaps and surface disinfectants in hospitals and other healthcare settings.

The UK researchers are from the University of the West of England, Bristol, who

teamed up with, among others, India-based Biolaya Organics, a company that

develops projects aimed at conserving endangered medicinal herbs, for example by

cultivating them using sustainable methods and providing alternatives such as

more common species.

" The team is working on a project to give rural communities the means to

generate income from sustainable collection of non-timber forest products in the

Kullu District of Himachal Pradesh. Earlier this year, the United Nations

Environment Program (UNEP) gave the project the SEED award. SEED is an

international programme with UN backing that supports entrepreneurial

partnerships that develop creative, locally led solutions to the global

challenges of sustainable development. The creative and innovative part of the

project is that it potentially gives a sustainable source of income to the

people of the Himalayas while at the same time providing UK hospitals with an

environmentally friendly way of preventing the spread of MRSA. The Himalayan

Oregano project was one of five SEED 2008 winners who this year were selected

from over 400 entries worldwide.

" Himalayan oregano is just common Origanum vulgare that grows in the Himalayas.

In fact the local people in Kullu don't regard it as having any culinary or

medicinal value and treat it as a weed: they call it " bekaar gahaas " or " useless

grass " because even the cows and goats don't eat it. "

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/130620.php

________________________________

I am posting these messages and passing it on because they have become a real

issue in our CML community, as this article denotes that C-difficle catching up

to MRSA. I have had both and I wouldn't wish either on a dog:

" Clostridium difficile, a life-threatening bacterium that causes diarrhea and

more serious intestinal problems, is closing in on MRSA as the most prevalent

and troublesome hospital-acquired superbug in the US; it is rapidly developing

an antibiotic resistant form and a new survey suggests it is infecting between 6

and 20 times more patients than previously thought.

" The Washington, DC-based Association for Professionals in Infection Control and

Epidemiology (APIC) posted a summary of the results of a nationwide survey on

Tuesday 11th November titled " The National Prevalence Study of Clostridium

difficile in US Healthcare Facilities " on their website and announced that a

study is scheduled to appear in a Spring 2009 issue of APIC's American Journal

of Infection Control. APIC estimated that in the US, 13 out of every 1,000

in-patients were either infected or colonized with C difficile and on any given

day over 7,000 patients in America have C difficile and about 300 die from it.

The cost to the American healthcare system is put at around 17.6 to 51.5 million

dollars. "

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/129118.php

__________________________________

" Description of What you Need to know about Prevention Of Recurrent MRSA Skin

Infections. Clinicians often prescribe topical, intranasal, or systemic

antimicrobial agents to patients with recurrent skin infections caused by

methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) in an effort to eradicate the

staphylococcal carrier state. Some agents can temporarily interrupt

staphylococcal carriage, but none has been proved effective for prevention of

skin infections caused by MRSA. Extant data do not support the routine

prescription of topical antiseptics or of intranasal or systemic antibiotics for

the prevention of MRSA skin infections. Hygienic interventions, especially

frequent hand washing with plain soap and the use of alcoholbased hand

sanitizers, remain the cornerstone of efforts to prevent recurrent infections. "

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/134641.php

FYI,

Lottie